Daimler to buy its EV batteries from CATL

Daimler is turning to China as it wants Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) to supply battery cells for their electric cars. The German carmaker says CATL was the only supplier that agreed to follow human right standards.

Cobalt especially is a raw material that is often won with children labouring in mines and Daimler says it has published a set of standards suppliers must agree to follow. CATL was ready to adhere and has thus already received the first order from Daimler to supply battery cells.

With Daimler, CATL is fast advancing to “home supplier” of the European car industry that has so far refused to make battery cells in Europe. Only PSA recently welcomed the idea of a “Battery Airbus” but so far is also working with CATL. So is Volkswagen and the Chinese firm has advanced to the world’s third largest battery maker with an output of 6.8 GWh in 2016. Accordingly, CATL is working on a Gigafactory of its own in China and also delivers cells for the BMW i3 (we reported).

handelsblatt.com (in German)